Will table SC remarks on 2002 riots: Modhvadia

Gandhinagar: Accepting the challenge of a
Gujarat minister to submit proof about adverse remarks
reportedly made by the Supreme Court against Chief Minister
Narendra Modi, state Congress president Arjun Modhvadia on Monday
said he would table the comments in the state Assembly soon.

During a heated discussion on jobs for minorities in the
state, Gujarat Congress president Arjun Modhvadia said that it
had been proved that the Modi government was "anti-minority"
and claimed even the Supreme Court had once said that "Nero of
Gujarat was sleeping when the state was burning" in 2002.

Parliamentary affairs minister of Gujarat Dilip Sanghani
objected to Modhvadia`s remarks, saying that if he was
levelling such an allegation he should submit proof of it or
else apologise in the House.

Accepting Sanghani`s challenge, Modhvadia said he would
submit proof of the apex court`s remarks in the House soon.

The discussion took place when Congress MLA from Kalupur
Farooq Sheikh was asked how many youths of the minority
community had got themselves registered with the state
employment bureau and how many of them had got jobs.

The Supreme Court on April 12, 2004, had observed, "the
modern day Neros were looking elsewhere when Best Bakery,
innocent children and helpless women were burning and probably
deliberating how the perpetrators of the crime can be
protected".

The observation was made by division bench of Justice
Areejit Pasayat and Justice Doraiswamy Raju while quashing the
acquittal of all 21 accused in the 2002 Best Bakery case and
directed its retrial in a Mumbai court.